Ends tomorrow

The Lower Mainland’s newest online marketplace will open on Monday, April 28, when LikeItBuyItVancouver.com begins previewing a limited-time sale of everything from household goods to consumer electronics to cruises, travel, cars, gift cards and personal services.

Former Seahawk J.P. Darche answers questions from members of the media at Ford Field Tuesday, January 31, 2006 in preparations for Superbowl XL.

Photograph by: Rob Gurdebeke
, Wnidsor Star

If the Seattle Seahawks go on to win Sunday’s Super Bowl, fans and former players such as long snapper J.P. Darche might finally put the bitterness of Super Bowl XL behind them.

Darche was the only Canadian on the roster of the Seahawks -- 21-10 losers to the Pittsburgh Steelers on February 5, 2006, at Detroit's Ford Field -- in Seattle’s only previous visit to the Super Bowl.

The officiating in that game is still a sore subject with Seattleites, and former coaches and players.

Flag-happy Bill Leavy, who reffed the game, came out four years later and admitted to a couple of blown calls in the fourth quarter that severely comprised the Seahawks’ ability to win.

“That game was heartbreaking,” Darche recalled Friday, eight years later. “You hate to make excuses. But, to be honest, we got robbed a couple of times. Terrible calls. The referee, Bill Leavy, later regretted making them. The next morning, we woke up, wanting to throw up. We never came close again after that.”

Cornerback Marcus Trufant was the last remaining player on the Seahawks roster, who played in Super Bowl XL, when he was released in 2012. Quarterback Matt Hasselbeck is still active, however, as is kicker Josh Brown. But Darche, who became only the second Canadian college graduate to play in the Super Bowl, when he suited up in 2006, was released by Seattle in February of the following year and closed out his NFL career two years later with the Kansas City Chiefs.

Now 38, he will graduate in the spring with a medical degree from the University of Kansas, completing a circuitous route to becoming Dr. Darche which began at McGill University in Montreal. The older brother of former Montreal Canadien Mathieu Darche, J.P. (Jean-Philippe) graduated from McGill with a BSc. in physiology, then spent the next two years in med school while he completed his CIS eligibility. He was drafted by the Toronto Argonauts in 1999, but broke his leg in a playoff game against Hamilton in his first CFL season.

“I thought to myself, ‘That was fun.’ At least I gave professional football a try,” he said. “I got it out of my system. Now I can go back to medical school.”

But when the Seahawks got wind that Darche had some long snapping experience on his resume, they invited him to a tryout, along with seven others.

“They signed two of us,” he said. “Only one was going to win the job. The other was going home.”

Darche stayed. He got his first NFL start in September, 2000, against the Miami Dolphins and lasted for a total of 10 seasons. He and his wife, Joanne, settled in Kirkland, Wash., where the Seahawks trained, and all three of their kids -- Justin, 12, Catherine, 10, and Zack, nine -- were born there.

“The funny thing is, I only started long snapping in high school because the coach needed somebody, a bigger guy, to do it,” Darche explained. “It didn’t see any benefit to it. If you do it great, nobody notices. If you snap it over the kicker’s head, everybody thinks you’re a dummy. But, absolutely, it was best decision I ever made.”

At the start of the team’s offseason workouts in 2005, Darche was one of four Canadians on the Seahawks roster -- wide receiver Jerome Pathon and running backs Kerry Carter and Jesse Lumsden were the others. Only Darche was still with the ‘Hawks when they kicked off in Super Bowl XL.

On Sunday, he’ll gather with neighbours at his home in Overland Park, Kan., bring out some of his old Seahawk jerseys and T-shirts for the kids, and a 12th Man flag for them to wave, and hope there'll be no snap judgments made to ruin it for Seattle again.

Darche can vouch for it: "When we lost in ’06, it was the worst feeling in the world."